Alex Goldmark

Air Traffic Control Tower at DCA (Image: (cc) by Flickr user dbking)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Two airplanes landed without the aid of air traffic control shortly after midnight Wednesday because the lone controller in the tower at Reagan National Airport fell asleep at the switch. (TN partner WAMU has been reporting on this out of D.C.) Politicians and regulators are all equally upset by the incident, but they disagree on how to respond, particularly on what to spend on a response. The positions are revealing a partisan divide on willingness, or depending on your perspective, eagerness, to spend on safety.

Before the next midnight shift, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood had directed the FAA to place two controllers on the night shift at Reagan Airport. "It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space," he said in a statement. He also called for an FAA investigation.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit responsible for caring for New York's Central Park, is removing the confusing signs that led Police to ticket nine cyclists improperly for speeding Tuesday. What's more, the NYPD took the unusual step of making house calls to apologize for the erroneous citations.

While the speed limit is actually 25 mph, decades-old signs wrongly posted that the speed limit is 15 mph.    Police said they had followed those old signs.

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Early Tuesday morning, police set up a radar speed trap in Central Park.  They snagged 10 cyclists for going over the posted speed limit for bicycles of 15 m.p.h. during the car free hours of the park. David Regen was one of them. He was surprised to get pulled over just after one of the park's biggest hills.

"I've been riding in Central Park probably for 25 years and I've never been stopped by a police officer for anything before," he said. What was more unusual though, was what happened 13 hours later around dinnertime when police showed up at his door and told him he was treated unfairly and withdrew the ticket.

"I thought it was extraordinary that they came, physically to my door, that two officers came to my door to tell me this," he said.

Listen to an interview with Regen:

NYPD took the proactive step of personally visiting the cited cyclists to withdraw the tickets after they realized the summonses were issued as motor vehicle violations under the Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL) when they should have been summonses for violating park regulations.

The Central Park Conservancy is removing some confusing signs that led police to ticket nine cyclists for speeding — and the NYPD took the unusual step of making house calls to apologize for the erroneous citations.

(Alex Goldmark -- Transportation Nation) Last summer London launched a bikeshare plan that's on pace to have more than 4,000 bikes in and around the British capital. The scheme is officially called Barclay's Cycle Hire, but commonly known as Boris' Bikes after pro-bike mayor Boris Johnson who pushed for the plan.

This animation shows the real-time behavior of Boris' Bikes throughout London on one particular day: October 4th 2010. That's the day of a major tube strike, and the busiest day for the bikeshare scheme to date, according to the video posted by Sociable Physics.

Data collation and routing by Ollie O'Brien (CASA-UCL); Visualization created by Martin Austwick (ENFOLDing project/CASA-UCL) using Processing. See here for more info.

Cyclists running a red light in Central Park. (Alex Goldmark)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation)  Cyclist Derrick Lewis used to train every day in  Central Park. On a cold February morning he had just put new brakes on his bike. “I took a short test ride on my bicycle and very slowly rolled through a red light and a police officer in a small three wheeled vehicle pulled me over and gave me a $270 ticket.” He felt singled out as a cyclist because, he says, pedestrians aren't ticketed for jaywalking, nor are the horse-drawn carriages he points out.

This kind of comparison has been common on the NYC bike blogs and local papers since rumors of a crackdown began to surface in mid-January. One notable video made the rounds showing what it is like to stop at various lights on the 6.1 mile loop.

But it's been prompted by an equally fierce reaction from pedestrians, many of whom feel threatened by fast cyclists. “Quite honestly sometimes I wanna knock them off the bike, honest that's how I feel, 'cause they whiz right by you even though I have the light," pedestrian Jeanne Vodak said on a recent sunny morning.

"Sometimes I feel that if I wasn't watching he would have hit me, or the dog, that's the other thing I was concerned about, hitting the dog.”

The commander of the Central Park Precinct, Captain Philip Wishnia, told a crowded community meeting on Monday that in Central Park alone, the NYPD has issued 230 tickets to cyclists since the beginning of the year.

Police are cracking down on cyclists who run red lights in New York City. And in Central Park, the NYPD has issued 230 tickets to cyclists this year alone.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) A second fatal bus crash in as many days has sparked renewed calls for increased regulation and safety oversight on so-called Chinatown buses. There just isn't that much oversight to begin with now.

The Super Luxury Tours charter bus flipped on its side while headed to Philadelphia from New York City's Chinatown. The driver was killed, along with one passenger. About 40 people were sent to area hospitals,  according to police.The cause of the crash remains unknown.

Listen to a radio report on WNYC about bus regulations and these two crashes.

The second crash comes as National Transportation Safety Board investigators are set to interview the driver of the World Wide Tours bus that crashed on Saturday, killing 15. The driver of that bus, Ophadell Williams, has not been charged with anything at this time, but he has come under public scrutiny after his initial story was contradicted by passengers and witnesses. His driving record is also under review because, investigators say, he gave a false name several times when stopped for traffic violations in the past. Federal and state investigators want to know if that should have resulted in a suspension of his driving privileges and why the violations weren't linked to his commercial driving record.

New York Governor Cuomo said he's "asking the NTSB do a top to bottom review of this industry."

Right now there isn't all that much regulation of intercity bus companies, Chinatown or otherwise, says DePaul University transportation professor Joseph Schwieterman.

Click to enlarge. (Data: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The bus company at the center of the New York crash that killed 15 people on Saturday morning has a safety record better than average in several categories, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data.

That's an image above of a snapshot from the company's safety record in the FMCSA data. Click to enlarge.

World Wide Travel of Greater New York operates 13 buses with 75 drivers,  according to the data. Forty-three random safety inspections over the past 24 months have found just one violation. That includes both driver and vehicle inspections. The company had one bus pulled off the road out of 16 vehicle inspections--6.2 percent--for a violation so serious it amounted to an immediate hazard. The national average is substantially higher --  at 20.7 percent of inspections failed.

Even so, New York elected officials are calling for greater regulation of the intercity bus industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years.

World Wide also does better than the national average on driver inspections which examine the certifications, license endorsements and log books of drivers. These inspections are meant to reveal if a driver is on the road more than the maximum 10 hours in a 15 hour work day. World Wide had no drivers fail in the  inspections 27 past inspections.

World Wide has had two crashes resulting in injuries over the past two years.

We'll bring you more on the safety record and regulations of intercity buses as the day goes on.

(New York -- Alex Goldmark, with AP) Officials say 14 people have died in a tour bus accident in the Bronx, New York.

A New York Fire Department spokesman said a tour bus overturned on the New England Thruway near the West Chester County line at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday. The World Wide tour bus skidded on its side into a sign post that sheered the roof off along the window line of the bus. (Photo) According to the New York Police department the cause of the accident is thought to be a tractor trailer that swerved towrd, or possibly hit, the tour bus.

The FDNY spokesman says the bus was carrying 31 to 33 passengers. He says in addition to the fatalities, six passengers were critically injured and four have been transported to hospitals.

The spokesman says 11 others sustained minor injuries.

Safety oversight on tour buses--and trucks--is sometimes difficult to execute and often inconsistently enforced according to The Center for Public Integrity's News21 report on tour bus safety. News21 cites the lack of a consistent federal system for enforcing safety regulations and the ease with which companies can skirt regulations by changing their names and re-incorporating as a new entity.

Family members needing more information regarding the accident can call 311 in New York City.

(New York -- WNYC Newsroom) The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by New York City officials who want to force cabs to purchase more fuel-efficient cars.

The suit was brought by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade in 2007, when the city first announced plans to require cabs get at least 30 miles per gallon by 2009. Spokesman Michael Woloz said the victory is bittersweet.  "It's very unfortunate because everybody — the city and the industry — could have used that four years to really get a more fuel-efficient fleet on the streets already," he said.

Woloz said that time could have been spent negotiating for a more reasonable time table to phase in fuel-efficient cabs.

Taxi and Limousine commissioner David Yassky said in a statement that the city would seek other ways to improve the city's air. He said some fleet owners have seen the "clear logic" of using greener cabs, and have voluntarily put 4,300 hybrids in service. Yassky will be on WNYC around 4:40 p.m. to discuss the decision today.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city will try to lobby federal officials, and that Monday's decision won't put a cramp in the city's greening plan. Federal judges said it is up to federal agencies and not local officials to regulate fuel economy and emission standards.

With the Associated Press

UPDATED: With response from American Airlines

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The U.S. Department of Transportation fined American Airlines $90,000 Monday for charging passengers undisclosed voucher fees. Airlines routinely offer free flight vouchers as an incentive to give up a seats on oversold flights. A DOT investigation found that American was not telling passengers about restrictions, including a $30 ticketing fee, on the use of those flight vouchers.

This is the first time the DOT has issued a fine on an airline for failing to disclose fees.

“When passengers volunteer to give up their seat on an oversold flight, they are entitled to be fully compensated – not to find out later that they’re getting $30 less,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  “Passengers deserve to be treated fairly when they fly, and especially when they’ve volunteered to give up their seat because the airline overbooked their flight.”

In a statement the DOT explained the rules for "bumping" and vouchers this way: "an airline must first seek volunteers willing to give up their seat on an oversold flight before bumping passengers involuntarily.  The carrier may offer any type or amount of compensation agreed to by the volunteer, in contrast to involuntary bumping situations, where DOT rules require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation in most cases."

An investigation by the DOT’s Aviation Enforcement Office found that American offered travel vouchers valued at specific dollar amounts as compensation for voluntary bumping.  However, when awarding the vouchers, the DOT found, American did not tell passengers about a ticketing fee required to redeem the vouchers, nor that the vouchers could not be redeemed on the carrier’s internet site.

The DOT stresses that the process for redeeming oversales flight vouchers remains more cumbersome and complicated than purchasing a ticket or redeeming other flight vouchers.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) New York, Chicago, Boston all made the cut. Los Angeles, not so much. The Natural Resources Defense Council released their top 15 "Smart Cities" for transportation Wednesday.

The study compares metro regions according to public transit accessibility, cost, use as well as household auto habits. Innovations, like pedestrian plaza construction and sustainable transportation programs are factored in as well.

The NRDC announcement offers some highlights of what constitutes a "Smart City" In Lincoln, Nebraska, for instance, low-income riders pay a mere $7.50 for unlimited bus rides all month long.

Around U.C. Davis in Yolo, Calif. the local transit provider, Yolobus, does such a good job of balancing the needs of students (who bike a lot), government employees, and casino patrons that the area boasts the highest rate of transit access, 91 percent, of any small region (population under 250,000).

NRDC partnered with the Center for Neighborhood Technology on the study, drawing data from the U.S. Census as well as CNT's H+T Affordability Index that quantifies household transportation costs by location.

Getting from place to place is more affordable in New York—at an average annual household cost of $5,289—than in any other large city, according to CNT.

And at an average of 9,920 miles a year per household, New Yorkers travel fewer miles in the car than residents in any other region in the country besides Jersey City, New Jersey.

The 2011 Smarter Cities for Transportation aren't ranked. Sorry, there's no a number 1 city here. But they are grouped by city size, and each city gets it's own web page extolling the efficiencies, access, or other admirable elements that earned them this eco-accolade.

Large cities (population more than 1 million)

Boston, MA/NH, Chicago, IL, New York, NY , Portland, OR, Philadelphia, PA/NJ , San Francisco, CA, Washington, DC/MD/VA/WV.

Medium cities (population: 250,000 – 1 million)

Boulder-Longmont, CO, Honolulu, HI, Jersey City, NJ, New Haven, CT.

Small (population less than 250,000)

Bremerton, WA, Champaign-Urbana, IL, Lincoln, NE, Yolo, CA

Here's the press conference where Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his decision to cancel Florida's high-speed rail plan.
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(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget of $3.729 trillion slashes spending in many areas, but it is generous to transportation and infrastructure.

The budget calls for a $556 billion six-year transportation bill, a 60 percent increase--when adjusted for inflation--over the last bill, which expired three years ago . That’s even more than the roughly $500 billion transportation bill proposed and stalled during the previous congress.

In the President’s proposed budget, the Department of Transportation gets $129 billion in 2012 . There is substantial money for high-speed rail, as well as several new initiatives including the creation of a national infrastructure bank, and a competitive grants program that alters the way some road spending will be distributed.

Republicans say the increases are unjustified and unpaid for. One notable spending spike is an immediate $50 billion “up front boost” that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says will “jump start job creation while laying the foundation for” competitiveness. House Budget Committee Chair, Paul Ryan issued a critique of the budget that included characterized the spending as a $435 billion transportation tax.

House Transportation Committee Chairman, John Mica, was still reviewing the budget proposal and has no comment yet.

President Obama released his proposed budget for 2012 this morning.

We are collecting responses and parsing through everything transportation and infrastructure related in the $3.7 trillion dollars of spending.We’ll be posting various responses and a round-up at the end of the day.

House Republican leadership is unified in their disapproval of the budget as taxing and spending too much, cutting too little and not reducing the deficit enough. Obama's proposed 68 percent increase in transportation spending over last year is a prime target for claims that Obama is increasing spending in times when cuts are needed.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn't think released the following statement today critical of the increases in President Obama's budget:

“The president’s budget will destroy jobs by spending too much, taxing too much, and borrowing too much. By continuing the spending binge and imposing massive tax hikes on families and small businesses, it will fuel more economic uncertainty and make it harder to create new jobs.

“The president’s budget isn’t winning the future, it’s spending the future. A group of 150 American economists signed a statement sent to the White House yesterday that says we need to cut spending to help create a better environment for job creation in our country. Our goal is to listen to the American people and liberate our economy from the shackles of debt, over-taxation, and big government. ..”

President Obama released his proposed budget for 2012 this morning. We are collecting responses and parsing through everything transportation and infrastructure related in the $3.7 trillion dollars of spending.

We'll be posting various responses and a round-up at the end of the day.

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, issued a harsh critique of the president's budget as spending too much, expanding federal power, and for raising taxes on oil, coal and gas producers.

Much of his response does not have to do with transportation, but he does mention the 68% percent increase over last year's spending levels as evidence of Obama's fiscal irresponsibility.

From DeMint's statement:

“One-third of the President’s claimed ‘savings’ are tax increases so the Democrats can keep up their big-government spending plans. Instead of increasing Washington’s control over areas like education and transportation, we need to devolve these decisions back to the states. It’s time to change course, stop the wasteful Washington spending and begin making the hard decisions to save our nation from the coming fiscal crisis.”

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The U.S. Public Interest Resource Group likes the allocation to infrastructure in the President's budget.  We'll be posting statements as we get them...and rounding up what's in the budget at the end of the day.

From a U.S. PIRG statement:

Statement by U.S. PIRG Senior Tax and Budget Analyst Phineas Baxandall, on the Obama administration’s FY 2012 transportation budget proposal, which includes a major increase in transportation funding and an $8 billion annual investment in high-speed rail.

“The administration’s budget request proves that President Obama is serious about investing in the future, while bringing much-needed reform to our broken transportation system.”

The American Public Transportation Association is pleased with transportation spending levels in the budget, which, if it passes unchanged, would mean a 60 percent increase over last year. The APTA also likes Obama's proposal of a $30 billion infrastructure bank.

President Obama released his proposed budget for 2012 this morning. We are collecting responses and parsing through everything transportation and infrastructure related in the $3.7 trillion dollars of spending.

We’ll be posting various responses and a round-up at the end of the day.

From the APTA statement:

“We applaud President Obama for his leadership and vision in making public transportation and high-speed rail programs a high national priority,” said APTA President William Millar. “Given the difficult federal budget environment and the need to grow jobs and the economy, the President’s proposal recognizes the difference between spending and investment.”

President Obama released his proposed budget for 2012 this morning. We are collecting responses and parsing through everything transportation and infrastructure related in the $3.7 trillion dollars of spending.

We’ll be posting various responses and a round-up at the end of the day.

Here's the official response from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Not surprisingly, Secretary of Transportation supports his boss' budget noting that the $129 billion budget for the Department of Transportation is part of a six-year plan to help "win the future," the emerging slogan of the Obama administration introduced in his State of the Union speech.

A 52 page summary of the DOT budget is online here if you have the printer ink for it.

From the DOT Statement:

“President Obama’s budget for the Department of Transportation is a targeted investment in America’s economic success,” said Secretary LaHood.  “If we’re going to win the future, we have to out-compete the rest of the world by moving people, goods, and information more quickly and reliably than ever before.  President Obama’s investments in rebuilding our crumbling roadways and runways, and modernizing our railways and bus systems will help us do just that.”

Nationwide, our transportation systems are already congested and overburdened.  With the United States’ population expected to grow from more than 300 million in 2010 to more than 400 million by 2050, rebuilding and expanding the capacity of our roads, airports and transit systems is a strategic necessity for long-term economic growth.  The transportation investments proposed in President Obama’s FY12 budget will put Americans to work repairing the bridges and repaving the roads we have now, while supporting the development of the new electric buses and high-speed rail lines of America’s future.

President Obama released his proposed budget for 2012 this morning. We are collecting responses and parsing through everything transportation and infrastructure related in the $3.7 trillion dollars of spending.

We'll be posting various responses and a round-up at the end of the day.

Transportation For America, a transportation reform group that wants to see more investment in infrastructure likes the budget. 

James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued this statement (excerpted below):

“The President’s proposed budget delivers on his recent promises to ensure we have the 21^st century infrastructure necessary to support a revitalized American economy. While we believe the President is right to pursue a front-loaded investment in this budget that will boost employment in everything from construction to manufacturing, we are most excited by the bold proposals to ensure that the money is spent wisely and accountably.

“The Administration’s visionary reforms recognize where we are at this moment in history: Having built the world’s best highway and bridge network, we have to focus on preserving those aging assets while we build the missing pieces of a modern system that allows people and goods to get where they’re going cheaply, conveniently and safely. The Administration is right then, to propose a “fix it first” policy that will ensure that transportation agencies stop siphoning off money intended to rehabilitate bridges and highways. Equally smart are proposals to reward innovation through competitive grants that emphasize greater efficiency, broader and more affordable options and reduced dependency on foreign oil."

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